Health figures not what they’re cracked up to be

Maryan STREETHealth Spokesperson
12 February 2013
MEDIA STATEMENTHealth figures not what they’re
cracked up to be

When a surgeon is
forced to do two cataract operations in order to keep
elective procedure targets up rather than operate on a young
child there is something seriously wrong with the system,
Labour’s Health spokesperson Maryan Street says.

“Tony
Ryall is fixated on targets, yet in 2012 nearly 4000 more
children with preventable diseases were admitted to
hospitals than in the previous year..

“Of those 3701
children were admitted with diseases which are a direct
result of poverty and inadequate housing.

“How Tony
Ryall can continue to claim all is well in the Health
portfolio while increasing numbers of our children are being
admitted to hospital with diseases more generally associated
with Third World countries is beyond me.

"I know of one
ophthalmologist who was told he had to cancel an operation
on a small boy with a genetic eye condition to perform two
cataract operations instead, because the district health
board he works for was below its monthly elective surgery
targets.

“He had made a necessary clinical decision
which was thwarted by the pressure on the DHB to tick the
boxes and keep the numbers up for the Minister. It was
demoralising, he said, but not an exceptional event.

"The
government's targets for elective surgical procedures are
paralysing our DHBs. Yes, the Minister can get what he pays
the DHBs for, but at what cost?

"For every 100 Pakeha
children admitted to hospital, there are 156 Maori children
admitted and 251 Pacifica children. Social inequality is
exposed for what it is in those figures.

“The tragedy
is that the government's efforts are not focused properly on
prevention but instead on pursuing targets.

"Tony Ryall
needs to wake up to what is really going on and who is
actually missing out on health
care.”

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